


Novo

by spoilersweetie



Series: Amor Vincit Omnia [4]
Category: Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Amor Vincit Omnia, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-07-31
Updated: 2014-07-31
Packaged: 2018-02-11 04:56:12
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,991
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2054454
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/spoilersweetie/pseuds/spoilersweetie
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A little scene set after the end of my fic Amor Vincit Omnia.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Novo

**Author's Note:**

> As stated in the summary this is a scene post Amor - if you haven't read that fic don't read this - it won't make one bit of sense to you lol. :)

“I’m hungry.”

Sitting by their small campfire with a map and some parchments laid out in front of him, the Doctor glances up at River’s words.

It has been two days since they left the palace, and while they as of yet hadn’t spoken much about what they planned to do, they’d agreed to head west towards the coast for a start. River of course owned a fleet and she’d mentioned that it would be easy enough to take one of the ships and get away before the news travelled out there that the empress was missing from the palace. After that… they didn’t really know yet. And not knowing but knowing he was able to decide - that he was free again - was kind of nice.

The Doctor nods his head towards their bags. “There’s still a rabbit left from lunch.”

River too glances over to wear it hangs by the legs to their things and then back at the Doctor. “It’s not cooked.”

He nods pointedly at the fire and the former empress stares at him.

He shrugs. “I cooked at lunch.”

She frowns. “Yes but you’re -”

When she cuts herself off and looks at him, at a loss, he raises his eyebrows. “I’m what? I’m not your slave anymore.”

She stares him down for several seconds before breaking the gaze, looking away as she climbs to her feet. “It’s just going to take some getting used to,” she mumbles.

The Doctor continues his scribbling as River shuffles about behind him, coming back over to the campfire with the rabbit in hand and sitting back down. She holds it up towards him.

“Can you skin it?”

He glances up at her. “Don’t you know how to?”

She sighs. “I haven’t done it for years. And I’m tired.”

“So am I,” he frowns at her.

River makes a noise of frustration. “Just skin it, please.” She tosses it into his lap.

He flings it back at her. “Skin it yourself.”

Her mouth dropping open, she gapes at him. “How _dare_ you -”

“No,” the Doctor frowns, cutting her off with a finger pointed at her. “You don’t own me now - you don’t get to talk to me like that, and you don’t get to order me about.”

“But I -”

He picks up a knife and tosses to the ground at her feet. “You’re hungry? Make your own food.”

The former empress gapes at him from her place by the fire and the Doctor pointedly does not look at her, studying the map open in front of him quietly, until several moments later after a long pause, he sees her rise to her feet out of the corner of his eye. She moves over to him and settles down on his pelt beside him, rabbit and knife in her lap.

“I’m… sorry,” she says softly, and he looks up at her in surprise.

“It’s alright,” he says.

She slides a hand onto his thigh, gazing up at him with those enchanting green eyes of hers and a pout on his lip as she sidles closer.

“You’re right… I can’t order you around anymore. It’s just… _hard_ ,” she squeezes his thigh, fingers dancing dangerously close to his crotch and he gulps at her smooth breathy voice. “I’ve been so used to you doing everything I need.”

He swallows. “I know,” he says, trying to ignore the small warm hand settled on his thigh, her thumb stroking softly through the material of his toga. “It’s okay. Like you said - uh - it’ll just take time.”

“Mmm I can do things for you too, you know… things you _need_ ,” she emphasises her point with a squeeze to his thigh, dangerously high up that leaves no doubt in his mind of her meaning.

He clears his throat, tries to be unaffected. “Uh…”

“If you’ll just help me with my dinner first? I’m so tired, sweetie.” She eyes his mouth, and licks her lips slowly, voice dropping. “And I would be very grateful…”

He leans in, lips inches from hers and gods he wants to close the gap and kiss her but - _no._ She has to learn. He knows what she’s trying to do and he can’t go giving into her from the start or she’ll never treat him any differently.

Their mouths a whisper apart, he pauses. “Make your own dinner,” he breathes against her lips before pulling away and going back to his map.

“Doctor!”

He ignores her.

“Look, fine,” she huffs, after a pause. “I get it. I get your point. But _you’re_ the man - if this is going to be a real relationship isn’t doing things like skinning animals _your_ job anyway?”

Resisting the urge to laugh out loud he looks over at her with raised eyebrows. “And you’re the woman - that makes cleaning the house and washing the clothes _your_ job - but I can’t imagine for one minute that’s how it’s going to be is it?”

She scowls darkly at him, and they stare each other down for a moment before River breaks eye contact. “I hate you,” she mutters, picking up the rabbit and the knife.

He hears the sounds of her cutting into it and smiles down at his map.

River skins and cooks the rabbit and both of them let the silence stretch out between them. He knows she is cross with him - but he also knows she can’t admit that and say anything because _she knows_ she has no right to be. And so he can hear her silently seething as she eats her food and the Doctor simply continues to study his maps and tries not to laugh at the situation - because he’s pretty certain finding out he was amused by her childish sulk would tip her over the edge.

She finishes her meal and puts her plate down by the fire, pouring herself a cup of water before settling back down on her fur with it, legs curled under her. The Doctor glances up to see her staring intently into the flames of the fire, a frown on her face that doens’t look cross anymore, but contemplative. He considers asking if she’s alright but remembers his resolve not to baby her, and decides she will speak to him if she really needs to.

She does, finally, her words quiet in the tranquil night.

“You don’t want a house, do you?”

He looks up from his maps and blinks, the question having been the last thing he expected her to say. “What?”

“You said cleaning the house - you don’t want to  - to _settle_ do you?” She suddenly sounds very unsure of herself. “Because I thought we were going to travel the world… I thought you said you’d take me wherever I want, I  - I don’t think I can settle down like that Doctor - I don’t know if I _ever_ could and - and if you think for one moment you’re going to knock me up and I’m going to sit at home and pop out babies for you then -”

“Woah, woah River, _River,_ ” dropping his maps on the ground, he leaves his place on his pelt to hurry over and sit beside her, taking her hands in his with a soft chuckle. “Calm down - gods above - can you really see me doing those things? Wanting them?”

She stares at him with wide eyes that still hold a little panic in them until she visibly relaxes and offers him a shaky smile, shaking her head. “No.”

He strokes his thumbs over the backs of her hands. “Is that what you were worrying about? I thought you were cross with me.”

She shrugs, avoiding his eyes. “I don’t know… this is all… strange to me right now, Doctor.”

“I know,” he says patiently.

She pauses.

“What _do_ you want?” She asks him quietly.

He smiles. “This,” he says simply. “You. Freedom. You and me. The world at our fingertips. That’s all that matters.”

“The world?” She looks up with a tentative smile.

“All of it. And beyond - maybe we could do it,” he smiles and she beams back.

“I _know_ we could.”

He lifts a hand to cup her cheek and repeats his words from the night they had run away. “Just watch us run.”

Instead of the smile he’d expected them to produce however, River bites her lip and continues to look at him.

“And children?” She asks, watching him quietly; warily in the dark. “Is that what you want?”

He stares at her, eyes wide with alarm. “I’d… never thought about it. I always assumed I’d… spend my life alone… is that what you want?”

River looks away. “I’d never thought about it either. I mean - I’ve _thought_ about it - as ruler you know I was supposed to produce an heir but - that would involve marrying and there was never any way in hell I was giving half of what I owned to a _man_. I decided I didn’t care what happens to my empire when I’m gone; I won’t be around to see it. As long as my name was forever burnt into history as the greatest ruler this world has ever seen then I didn’t care. Now… I don’t know what I want.” She looks at him, biting her lip. “I don’t think I’d be a very good mother.”

He lifts a hand to tuck a curl behind her ear. “Yes you would.”

She shakes her head with a frown. “No, Doctor, I wouldn’t. I don’t even remember my own parents and the only guardians I had growing up put me through hell to mould me into what they needed.”

He shakes his own head at her. “That doesn’t matter.”

“It _does_ matter - how am I supposed to know what to do?” She lets out a huff, breaking eye contact and looking down at her lap. “Anyway I’m too selfish to have children.”

The Doctor stares at her, a little stunned by her words. To realise something like that about herself - let alone admit it - said a lot for how much she’d changed from the cold, narcissistic woman he’d first met.

He covers her hands, resting on her lap with his own. “You’re not selfish.”

She actually snorts at his words, glancing up at him with a pointed look that reminds him of just earlier that evening.

He sighs, edging closer to her. “You can be a little - self-centered…” He admits carefully, his voice as gentle as he can make it, still wary of that temper he knows she possesses. “But it’s from years of habit - it - it’s understandable… you’re not a selfish person anymore. Look at all you’ve done for me.”

She shakes her head. “That was selfish Doctor; everything I’ve done is because _I_ want you.”

“No,” he argues gently. “Think about it River; you had me. I was yours - literally. You set me free, and that is the most unselfish thing you could have done.”

She turns her head to look up at him then, her eyes wide and lips parted. After a moment she shakes her head, breaking the gaze as she eases herself back on the fur pelt, laying down with a sigh. “I’m tired.”

Giving a sigh of his own, the Doctor puts his papers to one side and reclines back with her. It’s still habit for her to close off and change the subject when things get a little too close to her heart and he knows it’s going to take a long time for that to completely change. He winds an arm about her shoulders and inches closer to her, stroking her arm soothingly and feeling her relax against him. Luckily for them, he has all the time in the world.

They lay in companionable silence for a while, listening to the peace of the atmosphere around them, to the soft sounds of crickets chirping and their campfire crackling as they look up at the night sky.

“It’s beautiful,” River murmurs quietly, finally breaking the silence.

“It is,” he agrees.

She sighs sadly. “I wish I still had the star gazer you made me,” She admits softly.

The Doctor turns his head and places a kiss on her cheek. “When we’ve got our ship I’ll make you another one,” he promises. River turns her head to look at him sharply.

“I thought you said you couldn’t - that you wouldn’t be able to find the lenses?”

The Doctor shrugs, biting his lip and smiling a bit. “I may have… lied about that.”

River pulls away, leaning up on her elbow to look at him. “What!?”

He lets out a half laugh, rubbing a hand over his head. “I had the lenses made. The glass maker had said it was simple enough and I still have the calculations I gave to get it done. There’s no reason another one couldn’t do the same.”

River stares down at him, mouth open. “Why did you lie? You know how much I loved that instrument Doctor, why did you tell me you couldn’t make another one!?”

“Because you broke it,” He says, voice a bit sharper. He looks away from her burning green eyes, and lets out a sigh. “It was hurtful.”

“I said sorry,” River says, frowning.  

“You said sorry _after_ you found out I couldn’t make you another one.”

“Yes but -”

“I made that for you as a gift and you smashed it into pieces. Can you imagine how that made me feel, River?”

She falls silent then, and after a long pause she lets herself drop back down, face turned up towards the sky. “So you were what - teaching me a lesson?” She says.

The Doctor sighs. “I suppose you could put it like that,” he mumbles, certain she’s going to be cross with him for the remainder of the night and annoyed with himself that he’d brought the whole thing up.

Another pause stretches between them when River, much to his surprise, then turns to him and slips a hand over his stomach, curling into his side. She drops a kiss to his shoulder. “Thank you,” she murmurs.

The Doctor turns his head to gawp down at her. “What?”

She lets out a little huff. “I’m not saying it again,” she mumbles. “You made me a better person, Doctor. That’s all you’ve ever been trying to do, isn’t it?”

He doesn’t reply, but he lets a smile come to his lips as he looks at her, quietly watching her gaze up at the stars above them and marvelling at how much she’d changed - how much she was still changing - for the better - right in front of his eyes. He was so proud of her.

“So are you going to just stare all night or what?”

The Doctor blinks when River’s words cut through the quiet after several long moments.

“What?”

She turns her head to look at him, a serene smile on her lips and an eyebrow raised.

“Oh - _oh_ \- I was - just thinking.”

Smiling a little wider, a playful glint in her eye, River reaches down to pull her dress up, lifting her hips and sitting up to pull it over her head and toss it aside. She lays back on her side, head propped up on her hand and gazes at him. She dances the fingertips of her free hand up over her hip. “What are you thinking now?”

The Doctor’s darkened, slack-jawed gaze snaps from her fire-lit body to her face and he grins. “That thinking’s overrated.”

River laughs into his mouth as he rolls to kiss her, pushing her down onto her back and settling over her, hands dancing over her sides. Her giggles turn to a soft moan as he strokes his tongue along hers and slides one hand between them to cup one of her breasts, squeezing the soft flesh gently and flicking his thumb over her hardening nipple.

The Italian summer nights are warm but still cool enough for him to feel goose bumps on River’s flesh as he runs a hand down her arm - or perhaps that was the effect of the open mouthed kiss he bestows on her neck. She tilts her head to the side to allow him more access and he smiles against her skin as she arches up into his touch. Placing a final kiss to the centre of her throat, the Doctor pulls back enough to gaze down at her, hands braced either side of her body.

“Are you cold? Do you want me to get a blanket out?” He asks softly.

River shakes her head. “I’m sure you can warm me up just fine without one sweetie,” she purrs, and the Doctor, never one to resist a challenge, grins down at her and ducks his head to take one of her nipples in his mouth.

She gasps, back arching off the fur pelt and he feels her fingers sliding into his hair, scratching at his scalp as he swirls his tongue around her nipple and delights in the low sounds it produces. He feels River’s other hand sliding between them, skating down his abdomen to rub at his increasing erection through his toga, and he groans around her nipple, opening his mouth to gasp when she squeezes him. In his distraction, River makes to roll them over, but the Doctor resists, gently pushing her back down, dropping a kiss to her stomach as he looks up at her with darkened eyes and murmurs a, “Let me, please?”

River hums, nodding. “You don’t have to ask twice,” she says, already parting her legs for him as he kisses down her body, hands sliding to her knees to push them open and hooking one beneath to lift her leg over his shoulder as he settles between her thighs and gazes down at her, already glistening in the light of the campfire with her arousal. He exhales, breathing warm air onto her slick flesh and she shivers, both hands in his hair now, tugging impatiently as she tilts her hips up towards him.

The Doctor licks his lips before he bends his head to place a kiss to her core, and then licks up slowly between her folds, opening her to him and gathering the delicious taste of her on his tongue. River lets out a low breathy moan and he slides his hands under her backside to pull her to him as he slides his tongue down and pushes it inside her. She gasps, heel digging into his shoulder, and he listens to her breathing increase as he eases his tongue in and out, curling it and licking her inside until she is panting and her fingers are almost painful in his hair.

There was a time when he hadn’t even known about this, let alone what to do once he was down here, but the Doctor had since spent many, many hours between his former mistress’s legs, learning with her guidance every way to make her moan, and then discovering further by listening to the way her body responds to his touches (and maybe a little bit of literary research too), and by now he prides himself on being quite the expert in how to perfectly please her. She’d even admitted to him once, in a state of post-coital bliss, that nobody had ever made her come as hard before. He’s certain she probably doesn’t even remember saying it but the smugness from that one would probably never wear off.

She moans now, her voice hoarse and high-pitched as her hips rock in time to the movements of his tongue and she tilts them, trying to get pressure on her clit as his tongue works inside her. “Please sweetie,” she breathes, and he takes pity on her, sliding his tongue out and licking back up to flick over her clit as he instead moves a hand beneath his chin and pushes two of his long fingers inside her. She lets out the most beautiful sound, long and open-mouthed and hoarse, and he sucks on her clit in response, pumping his fingers steadily in and out several times as he revels in the feel of her hot and slick and tight around him, before he curls them up towards his face and strokes her inside with a beckoning motion that has her thighs shaking in moments.

He feels her grow slicker beneath his tongue, feels hot liquid drip down over his hand and he knows she is close to the edge as she gasps and moans above him, and he increases the speed of his movements, rubbing that perfect spot inside her and stroking her clit hard with his tongue until she breaks apart with a scream. He works her through her orgasm, feeling her body quiver and shake around him and listening to her beautiful cries as he draws out her pleasure until she can do nothing but gasp, tugging in his hair to pull his mouth from her. He lets his fingers go still inside her, feeling her inner walls contract around him once more before he slides them from her, and gazing up into her pleasure-clouded eyes, sucks them into his mouth, licking them clean as she groans hoarsely and tugs at him. Crawling up her sweat-covered body, the Doctor presses a kiss to her gasping mouth, smiling smugly as she moans quietly in satisfaction, licking the taste of herself from his lips and tongue.

The Doctor smooths his hands down her trembling body, feeling the sweat on her skin already start to cool. “Warmed up?”

She snorts, pulling him close and burying her face in his neck. “On fire,” she purrs into his skin and he groans quietly. She moans when he scrapes his teeth lightly against her shoulder and smooths a hand down over his back.

“Just give me a minute sweetie,” she mumbles, still panting beneath him and he chuckles quietly into her hair, dropping a final kiss to her shoulder before rolling off her and getting to his feet with a “Wait there.”

He digs their blankets out of their bags and returns to kneel by River, throwing one quickly over her before settling down next to her, wriggling beneath it and pulling her close to him. She settles into his side with a content sigh and he presses another kiss into her hair. “Sleep, you’re tired,” he murmurs.

“What about you?” River mumbles, stroking fingertips down her stomach. The Doctor catches her hand in his own before it can reach it’s destination and lifts it from beneath the blanket with a sigh, placing a kiss to the backs of her fingers.

“You can make it up to me in the morning.”

“Mmm, I will,” River promises in a low, sleepy purr, curling her fingers round his and letting their hands come to rest over his heart.

She smiles against his shoulder after a moments silence. “Your heart’s beating so fast,” she whispers.

The Doctor clears his throat sheepishly - yes, it was, he supposes, shifting a bit uncomfortably. “It’s trying to keep up with how much I love you,” He whispers back.

“Oh,” she says, and he can hear the smirk in her voice, “I thought it was just working extra hard getting all that blood into one place.”

“Nope. Love, definitely.”

“Well. And it still manages the other thing. Impressive sweetie.”

Grinning, he shrugs. “Well it is a bit of a struggle.”

“Maybe you need two hearts,” River quips.

“That would come in handy wouldn’t it? One entirely for loving you.”

She bursts out laughing then, nudging him playfully with her foot. “Idiot,” she murmurs fondly.

The Doctor grins, chuckling quietly as he pulls her closer.

“If I did have two hearts they’d both be yours, you know,” he tells her softly when she’s settled down again, and he hears her inhale quietly, holding her breath a moment before she lets it out again, and replies in a whisper.

“Me too.”


End file.
